Need Advice on Clearing Cloudy Pool

[kwenlu]

Hello Everyone,

I opened my pool a little over two weeks ago. I usually have a bit of chemical balancing to do, but the water is clear. This year, the water became cloudy once the pump started running and has remained cloudy since.

The FC levels have never been below 15 with the CYA of 25 (I'm currently adding more to get thisa bit higher) since opening, so I don't believe a SLAM is the solution. I have a DE filter that I've backwashed and replaced the DE in 3 times since opening (I actually added too much DE at one point and the excess added to the cloudiness x_x).

I went and bought a flocculent to try, but I'm hesitant to use it. In part because I've never used one before, and also because I would only be able to remove the solid material via my pool robot's basket, which would very time consuming.

I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has, and I'm open to suggestions. Thank you.

 

[PoolStored]

I went and bought a flocculent to try, but I'm hesitant to use it.

Please do not use flocculants, you will cause more problems...

Flocculant - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

the excess added to the cloudiness x_x)

May be an issue with the DE filter...One of the DE Filter folks will chime in...

 

[reggiehammond]

DE would fall out of the water fairly quickly - unless you have a bad filter and were constantly blowing a portion back into the pool. Could consider shutting pump down for an hour and see if the debris falls to floor.

Can you add a picture of current status? Photos are worth a thousand words.

 

[kwenlu]

DE would fall out of the water fairly quickly - unless you have a bad filter and were constantly blowing a portion back into the pool. Could consider shutting pump down for an hour and see if the debris falls to floor.

Can you add a picture of current status? Photos are worth a thousand words.

Yes, the excess DE does settle, but the overall cloudiness does not.

I attached some photos of both the shallow and deep ends. It's a white cloudiness.

 

[Donldson]

Floc has to be vacuumed to waste, if you don't have that ability then you'll really be in trouble if you try to use it.

Your FC is awfully high for such a low CYA level. And you say it hasn't been below 15 FC? Just how high has it been...?

 

[kwenlu]

Floc has to be vacuumed to waste, if you don't have that ability then you'll really be in trouble if you try to use it.

Your FC is awfully high for such a low CYA level. And you say it hasn't been below 15 FC? Just how high has it been...?

Yes, it is high. I've been knocking it over the head to try to clear it. I've been keeping it 15-25 to maintain a very effective SLAM.

 

[Donldson]

I've been keeping it 15-25 to maintain a very effective SLAM.

Uh huh...

Have you tried brushing the surface?

 

[PoolStored]

Yes, it is high. I've been knocking it over the head to try to clear it. I've been keeping it 15-25 to maintain a very effective SLAM.

You are potentiall doing damage to your pool and equipment. SLAM level FC for CYA of 30 is 12 (We round up, so your pool is CYA 30)

 

[kwenlu]

Uh huh...

Have you tried brushing the surface?

Yes I brush it manually and the robot brushes the walls as well.

 

[kwenlu]

You are potentiall doing damage to your pool and equipment. SLAM level FC for CYA of 30 is 12 (We round up, so your pool is CYA 30)

Yeah, this isn't par for the course it's an extreme tactic. It was SLAMed for the opening, and when it didn't clear up, I kept the levels high. It is time to let it drift down. My pool gets a lot of sun so it'll come down soon.

 

[kwenlu]

Okay, I'm going to close this out for anyone who may be searching or googling a similar issue.

All my chemical levels were in the range the Pool Math app suggests (except CYA as mentioned earlier). I went back and looked at my records for chemical levels over the the last few years. The one that stood out was total alkalinity.

The app suggests a range of 50-90. My level this year was 70, so I didn't think anything of it. But for the last 3 years I've kept it at 100-120. I've also never had this cloudiness over the last 3 years. I ran it by a buddy of mine who works with pools a lot, and he suggested the range for TA should be 80-120.

I added baking soda to bring the levels up to ~100 and a few hours later the pool cleared up. Not sure if this is because I'm on well water or what, but this was the answer. I hope this can help someone else.

 

[Donldson]

Since we're closing it out and trying to be helpful to anyone who might stumble across this: let me explain what actually was happening here.

OP was massively overdosing chlorine and not following the SLAM Process in any way. Because the pH test reads high when FC is over 10 ppm OP's pH reading of 7.4 means the real pH was likely actually below 7. This acidic water combined with excessively high FC levels was eating away at the finish of the pool surface. This liberated plaster was clouding the water. Every time OP brushed or ran the vacuum robot more dust was thrown up in to the water. When OP added TA to the water it helped the pH rise above 7. This combined with the reduction of FC stopped the attack on the pool finish. Without more plaster dust being introduced in to the water the filter was finally able to get ahead of the problem and the water to clear.

So anybody stumbling upon this: please don't let "baking soda clears cloudy water" be your takeaway. It rarely does. If you are dealing with cloudy water please start your own thread and let us help you. If test results indicate that following the SLAM Process will clear the water then please follow the process correctly and don't fall for the "more is always better!" fallacy. The process works and does so in a way that doesn't damage the pool or equipment.